Official FCC Blog

Charting Broadband Opportunities for Low-Income Americans

July 11, 2012 - 11:00 AM

We are delighted by the response last week to our groundbreaking Lifeline Broadband Adoption Pilot competition. Our Pilot takes aim at a problem that perpetuates poverty in the 21st Century: the low rate of broadband adoption by low-income Americans. Providers of all kinds submitted a total of 24 applications proposing innovative programs to help us better understand and tackle that issue.

Over the years, our Lifeline program has helped tens of millions of low-income consumers afford telephone service. But with broadband as essential today for jobs and opportunities as the phone was in the last century, the FCC in January included in its comprehensive reforms and modernization of Lifeline a Pilot program to explore ways to increase the low rate of broadband adoption among low-income Americans. Using $25 million in savings from Lifeline reforms, we will fund the selected Pilot projects for a year, while collecting valuable real world data about the experience to help the FCC determine how to use our Lifeline program to effectively increase broadband adoption.

At first glance, the applicants appear to have proposed well-structured, well-conceived pilots designed to help us gather the data we would need to design an effective Lifeline broadband support program. Many applicants are working with partners that can provide expertise on digital literacy training and sources for low-cost equipment. Also helpful: the applicants represent a geographically diverse mix of 25 states, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico, enabling the pilots to test regional differences. You can view the applications in our electronic comment filing system by searching proceeding 11-42. Under “advanced options,” filter by the term “application”. Here’s a list:

Allied Wireless – Tribal and non-Tribal lands in Georgia, North Carolina, and Idaho

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